Vacuum cleaner



Nov. 11, 1969' e. ROBINSON VACUUM CLEANER 2 Sheets-Sheet Filed June 19, 1967 FIG.5

INVENTOR. Roam sow G. ROBINSON VACUUM CLEANER Nov. 11, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 19, 1967 INVENTOR. 9'; EN ROBINSON BY W #77019: as

United States Patent O 3,477,087 VACUUM CLEANER Glen Robinson, Pasadena, Calif, assignor to Bon-Aire Industries, Ind, Long Beach, Calif. Filed June 19, 1967, Ser. No. 646,996 Int. Cl. A47l /24; B0111 29/10 U.S. Cl. l5344 '1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A vacuum cleaner comprising an elongated housing forming a rearward motor compartment and a forward vacuum chamber. A motor is mounted on the rear side of an intermediate wall separating the chamber and compartment, and includes a drive shaft which projects forwardly through a bore in such wall. A blower is supported on the forward extremity of the shaft and includes a transverse base plate having a series of forwardly projecting impellers for blowing air from the vacuum chamber to create a partial vacuum therein. The blower also includes aseries of rearwardly projecting impellers for drawing air forwardly through ventilating openings included in the intermediate wall to create a partial vacuum in the motor compartment to cause ventilating air to flow in through a vent disposed back of said motor and over the motor thereby cooling such motor.

To provide convenient structure for supporting a dirt bag, the forward end of the vacuum chamber is open and is covered by a fitting which includes a rearwardly projecting tubular receiver for mounting a bag holder. The fitting also includes a tubular retainer surrounding the receiver and terminating in a rearwardly facing edge which abuts a peripheral seal included in the bag holder and presses it against a peripheral flange formed by the housing to seal the forward end of the vacuum chamber.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of invention The present invention relates generally to vacuum cleaners and more particularly to a vacuum cleaner wherein the electric drive blower motor is always cooled regardless of the volume of air being pulled from the vacuum chamber. This invention further relates to a vacuum cleaner dirt bag holder and to a fitting for conveniently supporting such holder from the housing.

Description of prior art Presently known vacuum cleaners generally depend on the air pulled through the head of the cleaning attachment to cool the drive motor and consequently when air flow through such attachment is interfered with cooling of the motor is interrupted.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION The vacuum cleaner of present invention includes a drive motor having a drive shaft which projects forwardly through an intermediate wall into the vacuum chamber and which mounts a blower on its forward extremity. The blower includes a set of forwardly projecting impellers for blowing the air from the chamber and a series of rearwardly projecting impellers which pull air through a set of ventilating openings in the intermediate wall to create a partial vacuum in the motor compartment and draw air in through a vent in the back wall of the compartment and draw it over the motor to cool it. A particular advantage of this invention is that such cooling of the motor continues regardless of the amount of air being passed in through the cleaning attachment, thus assuring continued motor cooling even though the attachment may be plugged.

Patented Nov. 11, 1969 DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vacuum cleaner embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken along the lines 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a left end view taken along the lines 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken along the lines 44 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken along the lines 55 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken along the lines 6--6 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 7 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the lines 77 of FIG. 6.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The vacuum cleaner shown in the drawings, referring particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, includes an elongated housing H which forms a forward vacuum chamber 11 and a rearward motor compartment 13 for housing a motor M. The motor M drives a blower B which creates a partial vacuum in the vacuum chamber 11 and, independently of that partial vacuum, also creates a partial vacuum at the front end of the motor chamber 13 to cause cool air to be drawn in through a series of vents 15 disposed rearwardly of the motor and to pass such air over the motor M to cool it.

An attachment fitting F covers the front end of the housing H and supports a dirt bag holder, generally designated 19, with its included peripheral seal 21 pressed tightly against a complemental peripheral flange 23 formed by the housing H.

With continued reference to FIG. 1, the 'housing H forms an upwardly protruding handle 25 and a downwardly opening exhaust hood 27 which is disposed on one side of the housing adjacent the blower B (FIG. 5). Referring to FIG. 2, the "blower B is disposed in a blower compartment 29 which is formed by an intermediate wall 31 forming the forward end of the motor compartment and second wall 33 forming the back end of the vacuum chamber 11. The housing H is preferably made from a plastic material and formed from a pair of longitudinal halves which are pressed together. The walls 31 and 33 are received in peripheral grooves 35 and 37, respectively, formed in the housing H.

The back end of the motor compartment 13 is closed by a rear wall 41 which is mounted against a peripheral flange 43 formed by the housing H. The wall 41 includes an upwardly projecting lip 45 which is received in an internal notch formed in the upper side of the housing H and the lower portion of the wall 41 is held firmly against the flange 43 by means of a pair of Phillips screws 4? which are screwed into a pair of fastener inserts (not shown) mounted to the housing H. The wall 31 includes a central bore 51 for receiving the motor drive shaft 53 and also a series of ventilating openings 55. The motor M is mounted at its front end to the wall 31 by means of a pair of mounting screws 57 (FIG. 4). The blower B is preferably formed from a plastic material and includes a base plate 61 having forwardly projecting vacuum impellers or blades 63 and rearwardly projecting motor ventilating impellers 65. The vacuum impellers 63 are in the form of paddles which have longitudinal radially inner edges 69 that cooperate to define a cylindrically shaped central void for receiving air moving rearwardly from the vacuum chamber 11. Referring to FIG. 5, the impellers 63 extend outwardly in a generally radially direction from the edges 69 to form an efficient vane for forcing air outwardly from their radially inner edges when the blower is rotated in the direction of the directional arrow 70. The blower B includes a metal insert or hub 71 which includes a longitudinal bore that receives the motor drive shaft 53. The drive shaft 53 is flat on one side for receiving the end of a set screw 73 which is screwed through a radial bore in the hub 71.

It is noted that the cross section of the housing H is non-circular so the configuration of the blower chamber 29 does not complement the circular path defined by the radially outer ends of the impellers 63 and 65. Such noncircular cross section of the housing H and the fact that the drive shaft 53 is not disposed at the center of the cross section of the housing H results in the hood opening 74, formed in the housing wall, being spaced away from the circular path defined by the radially outer ends of the impellers 63 and 65. Consequently, if the impellers 63 and 65 were to impel the air, being evacuated from the chamber 29, directly out the housing opening 74 the resulting vacuum in the vacuum chamber 11 would be relaively low because a large portion of the air expelled from the radially outer ends of the impellers 63 and 65 in the area of the opening 74 would fail to pass out the opening but, rather, would be diverted inwardly by the housing wall forming the lower edge of the opening 74 and would be drawn back into the chamber 29.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 5, in order to improve the eificiency of the blower B, the transverse wall 31 includes a forwardly projecting longitudinal wall portion 75 which is arcuately shaped to complement the path defined by the radially outer ends of the vacuum impellers 63. The upper side of the wall 75 forms the bottom edge of the exhaust port 74 and the wall then turns downwardly and outwardly to form a flange 76 which constitutes the lower wall of the hood 27.

The intermediate wall 33 includes a central opening 77 confronting the central void defined by the edges 69 of the impellers 63 for receiving the air from the vacuum chamber 11.

The dirt bag holder 19 includes a rearwardly projecting tube 79 which receives the forward open end of the air pervious dirt bag 81 around its outer periphery.

The fitting F includes a forwardly projecting tube 81 for interfitting the rearwardly projecting tube 83 of the attachment A and forms an inner passage 85 for conveying dirt suspending air from the attachment A to the bag 81. The passage 85 is closed by means of a flexible flapper 87 that includes an upwardly projecting tab 39 aflixed to the fitting F by a fastener 91. The fitting F is flared outwardly to form a transverse flange 93 for overlying the front edge 95 of the housing H and includes a rearwardly projecting tubular receiver 99 which interfits the tube 79. The tube 79 includes longitudinal ribs 101 which bear on the outer surface of the receiver 99 to frictionally retain the holder 19 on the receiver 99. The fitting F also includes a retainer 103 which surrounds the receiver 99 and projects rearwardly from the flange 93. The rearward end 105 of the retainer 103 is beveled to define a sharp edge for abutting the seal 21 and pressing it against the flange 23.

The forward end of the housing H includes an inwardly turned peripheral lip 109 which includes four different length inwardly opening slots 111, 113, 115 and 117 therein (FIG. 7). The retainer 103 includes four peripheral outwardly projecting different length lugs 121, 123, 125 and 127 for interfitting the notches 111, 113, 115 and 117, respectively. It is noted that each of the notches 111, 113, 115 and 117 are of different peripheral lengths and that the lugs 121, 123, 125 and 127 are of respective complementary lengths so that the fitting F can be joined with the housing H only in a selected clocked position, thus assuring that the peripheral contour of the fitting P will coincide with the peripheral contour of the housing H.

Referring to FIG. 1, the attachment A includes a downwardly directed rectangular shaped opening which has forwardly and rearwardly directed flanges 131 and 133, respectively, on the respective forward and rearward sides thereof. A brush, generally designated 135, includes confronting forward and rearward lips 137 and 139, respectively, which overfit the flanges 131 and 133, respectively, thus enabling the brush to be attached to the attachment A by merely sliding the lips 137 and 139 longitudinally over the flanges 131 and 133, respectively.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, an electrical wire 141 is threaded through a bore 143 formed in the lower portion of the back wall 41 for communicating electrical power to the motor M. A motor switch 145 is attached to the inner side of the upper portion of the wall 41 and includes a switch button 147 which projects outwardly through an elongated slot 149 in the wall.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent that when the vacuum cleaner of present invention is operated the revolving impellers 63 of the blower B will impel air downwardly and around the left-hand side of the blower chamber 29 in a counterclockwise direction, as viewed in FIG. 5 and that such air will be thrust out the hood 27 and will be diverted from being recirculated in the blower chamber 29 by the wall 75 and flange 76. The resultant partial vacuum in the vacuum chamber 11 will pull air through the air pervious bag 81 and draw air in through the attachment A to pick up any loose dirt confronting the brush 135. It is a particular advantage of this invention that independent of the vacuum in the chamber 11, the impellers 65 also force air out the hood 27 creating a partial vacuum in front of the openings 55 thus pulling air from the motor compartment 13 and causing air to enter the rear vents 15 and pass over the motor M to cool it. With this arrangement, the motor M is cooled regardless of whether or not air is being pulled from the vacuum compartment 11 and consequently will be cooled whether or not the opening of the attachment A is blocked. Thus, if the carpet being cleaned completely plugs the brush 135, preventing air from passing therethrough and entering the chamber 11 through the passage 85, the motor M will still be cooled and its life will accordingly be prolonged.

The dirt bag 31 is removed from the vacuum cleaner by removing the fitting F. The holder 19 is then slid off the receiver 99 and the dirt may be emptied from the bag 81. The bag 81 is reinstalled in the vacuum cleaner by sliding the holder 19 over the receiver 99 and then fastening the fitting F to the housing H. Since the notches 111, 113, and 11.7 selectively receive the lugs 121, 123, and 127, respectively, the fitting F can only be attached to the housing H in its correct clocked position and the contour of the mating peripheries will coincide. When the fitting F is tightened on the housing H, the rearward edge 105 of the retainer 103 will press firmly against the holder seal 21 to hold it tightly against the housing flange 23. Consequently, the bag 81 is convenient to remove from, and install in, the vacuum cleaner and the seal formed between the holder and the flange 23 will be extremely tight.

I claim:

1. A vacuum cleaner comprising:

a housing formed with a vacuum chamber having an inwardly turned peripheral lip defining a forwardly facing opening, said lip being formed with a plurality 2f inwardly opening peripheral notches, at least one of said notches being longer than the other of said notches, said housing further including an internal peripheral sealing flange spaced rearwardly of said p;

5 6 a cover for covering said opening and including a rear- References Cited wardly projecting tube, a retainer surrounding said UNITED STATES PATENTS tube and terminating in a rearwardly facing sealing 2 064 587 12/1936 Carlstedt edge disposed adjacent said flange, said cover further 1 10/1943 Lana 55 373 including a plurality of outwardly extending periph- 5 334,370 8/1967 Boyd 15 327 eral lugs for being complementally received in said notches and being retained behind said lip, one of OTHER REFERENCES said lugs being longer than all but said one notch; i PP- 60 and 61 of Appliance Manufaca bag holder telescopically received over said tube and 10 turer August 1965' including a peripheral seal overlying said flange and ROBERT MICHELL, Primary Examiner engaged by said sealing edge to press said seal firmly against said peripheral flange; and US. C1.X.R. a bag carried by said bag holder. 55-373 

